Psalm 120 (NIV) 1 I call on the Lord in my distress, and he answers me. 2 Save
me, Lord, from lying lips and from
deceitful tongues.
John 8:31-32, 34-36 (NIV) John 8:31-36 31 To
the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are
really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the
truth will set you free. 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell
you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no
permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So
if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Mary and Joseph left on their journey to Bethlehem
from their small village where a person’s word was law, and where what was said
and promised could be trusted. That was not so along their journey, where there
would be deceit, cunning, and craftiness met along the way. Deceitfulness is a
part of our life, and many of us have already become somewhat guarded and suspicious
of what we see and hear, and at some point a spirit of disillusionment may set
in. The final taste left in our mouths is not one of joy but of disappointment.
Save me, Lord, from lying lips and from
deceitful tongues. Jesus answers with deliverance. He
will save us from the snares of deceit. He will rescue us from the cunning
craftiness of those around us. And He does it by saving us from the most
damaging of all deceit - self-deceit. All false images, false hopes, false
optimisms grow only in the soil of self-deceit and are nourished by our
willingness to go on fooling ourselves. Facing the truth and accepting the
truth has always been hard for human beings. But the choice ever before us is
to establish our life in the fog of fantasy or in the soil of reality. And this
is the good news of Christmas. It is not a flight into the fantasy world of
nostalgia, but a glimpse into a truth often hidden from our eyes. Christmas is
Mary and Joseph on a trip to Bethlehem, and it is an inn where there is no
room. Christmas is the shepherds watching their fields by night and robbers
waiting by the road. Christmas is the Wise Men bringing gifts and it is Herod
with his soldiers. Christmas is a time when we celebrate the goodness of God
and the greed that often drives us, the joy and the dejection, the fullness and
the emptiness. The Christian pilgrim’s road is not a primrose path. There is
deceit and difficulties. And both are a part of Christmas and both need to be
included in our understanding of this birth, because ultimately and finally
both are in our hearts and both are objects of Christ’s love.
Christmas
does not change this mixture of goodness and evil in which we live, though we
will probably again hear the hope that it will. The message of Christmas is far more important than the
celebration of good or the denunciation of evil. The message of Christmas that
I hope we will hear from God Himself is this - we are loved. That is the truth that sets us free and that tends to
get lost on the difficulties of the journey. The living message lying in a
manger is the living message that we are loved by God.
From
a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope December 1, 1985
©
Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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